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Customers flock to food delivery apps to get their potato fix during the COVID-19 pandemic

SkipTheDishes, the Canadian online restaurant ordering and food delivery company, saw its customers order 72 per cent more potato products during COVID-19 than before the pandemic.

At the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a decline in demand for processing potato as a result of restaurant front of house closures. Sccording to the United Potato Growers of Canada update, across Canada in May 2020, with the exception of Manitoba, provinces were seeing above average numbers for how many processing potatoes were stuck in storage. Canadians were encouraged to support local restaurants through socially distanced pick-ups and food delivery apps like SkipTheDishes, UberEats, DoorDash, among others.

SkipTheDishes recorded a 72 per cent increase of potato products ordering during COVID-19, and this amount is calculated as the raw increase in potatoes ordered on the network. As a percentage of total orders, SkipTheDishes saw about a 12 per cent increase in potato orders as a percentage of total orders when looking at February to April.

The increase in potato orders is no surprise, because restaurant data shows that Canadians love potatoes. One in every four orders at a restaurant includes a potato item, according to SkipTheDishes. Across Canada, one in every six orders at a restaurant includes french fries. On SkipTheDishes, 88 per cent of all potato orders are fries. The platform says the most popular time to order hashbrowns is 9 a.m., while fries and mashed potatoes peak at 5 p.m. for dinner.

Since the beginning of COVID-19, the food delivery platform sold nearly seven million pounds of potato products through its network – equivalent to more than 600 elephants.

In New Brunswick, potato orders skyrocketed according to the company. While potato sales on the platform increased 72 per cent across Canada during COVID-19, New Brunswick saw the sharpest increase with 102 per cent more orders containing potatoes.

In Ontario, the province saw a 79 per cent increase in potato items being ordered via the app due to COVID-19 and ordered the most potatoes in Canada. Since March 13, 8,870,047 potato items have been ordered via the Canadian food delivery platform in Ontario.